Vintage Tannoys

I like to think of it as 'maintenance', rather than modification.

 

Hairs well split Dave;-) , I've edited my post thanks. You're correct the difference is the size of the driver one a 12" the other 10".I think once you get hooked on the Tannoy sound it tends to be for keeps.
Over the years I've had 12" Monitor Golds in corner Yorks, 15" Lancasters, then 15" in rectangular Yorks, 111LZ's, Arundels, D700's, 12 DMT, 15 DMT and finally 215 clones(which I still have)-It's a kind of illness...
Cooky
PS forgot some Saturns upstairs too;-)
PPS Ooh, forgot these too-2 pairs of MK1 Berkerleys with HPD's

 

Lockwood Audio can still recone Monitor Reds and Golds-I shudder to think for how much but it's good to know.
Cooky

 

My SRM10Bs cost me £250 not so long ago.

 

Strewth! They are well sort after so a great bargain.
http://www.hilberink.nl/codehans/tannoy90.htm and http://www.manleylabs.com/containerpages/ml10a99.html

 

Considering it's the drivers (not just the SRM10B's) that are sought after, I wonder if Tannoy will ever think it worthwhile to start producing some of the vintage drivers again (to the original specs), and if that happens will we hold it in such high regards.

 

It could be argued the latest Prestige range with Alnicos and pepperpots is precisely that (and more) in Tannoys eyes(!).The devil is in the 'and more' I suppose.
I did read somewhere that the available speaker cone pulp formulations have gone from 8 down to 2 tho' that could be BS.

 

Yes, but these newer units have much higher power ratings, so cannot be... blah blah blah. However, for £12k I'd buy the modern stuff (second hand or ex demo preferred).

Yes, but these newer units have much higher power ratings, so cannot be... blah blah blah.

 

New 2nd hand for me too.
I think it is precisely the vintage popularity that has given rise to the Prestige range designs.
I'd love to do an AB comparison new/old 15" DC's, drive them both hard and see/hear the effect of power compression, tired surrounds, fatigued hf diaphragms-it might sound better, more euphonic maybe-like an over driven Fender Champ.Joking aside my old Golds did sound wonderful.

 

In the new vs old debate I'm ever-so slightly heading towards at least 'newer' at the moment. Extended listening to my recently bought pair of 10 DMT's means that my Golds are shoved back into the corner of the room unused, and the way the DMT's reproduce voices in particular is making it difficult to swap back . They seem to have an extra level of detail and clarity without any harshness, which is something I couldn't say of the Little Reds I had, which seemed a bit 'cold', brutal almost - but I'm using a different amp etc. and it was while ago, so....

Don't think I'll be selling the Golds though, as there is just something about them.

 

Update as promised.

Well, Cooky said 'fire 'em up and they'll groove along nicely and image well'.

He wasn't kidding!

The imaging was the first thing I noticed. Not that enormous floaty soundstaging that makes everything sound too big, I really don't care for that; no these Tannoys pin things to where they should be in space and they have bags of presence.

I'm listening to trumpeter Don Goldie playing Gershwin on vinyl at the moment and it sounds really fresh, live and in the room.
By comparison, the little Spendor stand-mounts I have pull the performance back into the speaker and sit on it.

Same thing happened with some Les Paul and Mary Ford I played earlier. The Tannoy lifts everything out of the mix and gives it space to breathe. They seem to really thrive on honest old vinyl transfers and almost turn their nose up if you play anything with audiophile pretensions.

Onto the boxes themselves, these are far better than I expected and are good and solid. Cabinets are 3/4" particle board (say NO to MDF!! ) fully lined on all walls with bitumin and well lined with foam. Veneer is walnut and real tree - bit bland for my tastes but clean and very tidy. The crossover uses the most heavy duty inductors I've ever seen.
Looking at and feeling the DC driver just made me laugh - beautifully made and extremely solid.

So there you are - the best £150 I've ever spent on audio.
This range of speakers seems to sit in the no mans land between the early coveted classics and the modern stuff so there are bargains to be had.
Just need to sort some stands for them as the supplied ones are way too short.

Anyway, enough of me rambling lets have some pron:



They came complete with boxes, manuals, some period brochures and even the original sales slip from 1979 (when they were made).



Unboxed...



Very nice....



Top heavy



Beautiful:



Chunky XO.... and no electrolytic caps to go 'off'

 

Good find...anyone who buys new speakers is slightly deranged in my book.

 

That's excellent they look in mint condition-top find!

 

they look really nice Rob. Bargain.

I'll do a little update here later on about my new Tannoys!

 

Welcome to the club Neil.

 

Nice. Still a bit on the small side, though. You need a muscular 12".

 

All in good time

 

hallo,

i too use vintage Tannoy's.....SRM12B's
great with my Unison Research Simply 845!
i am playing with the idea of transplanting the works into a new cabinet.
i would like to have more bass out of the drive unit....more cabinet volume. :bakeoff:
i am just afraid of loosing the coherence.
so.....doing the research for cabinet disigns....

regards,
bastlnut

 

Does anyone remember that old film 'The Fly'?

A bloke goes into a teleportation machine and a fly gets inside with him and their DNA gets all mashed together. Nasty stuff...anyway.....

Today I put my Target MR stands and Mana Soundbases into my home made discombobulator and this happened:

 

Hi,
That may prove difficult, the T&S for that driver state an Fs of 69 hz and even in the 12X cabinet the Tannoy specs quote 55hz-20khz -6dB.
Some on the Tannoy forum find Velodyne subs are a good match.
Cooky